$600M student lawsuit filed

More than 50,000 college and university students in Windsor and Essex County who took out OSAP loans between 2000 and 2006 are covered under a $600 million class action lawsuit filed by a Windsor firm Friday.

Tens of thousands of college and university students in Windsor and Essex County who took out OSAP loans between 2000 and 2006 are covered under a $600-million class-action lawsuit filed by a Windsor firm Friday.

The student loan holders are among 583,000 Canadians who had their security compromised when federal employees lost track of a two computer hard drives containing valuable financial details, including their Social Insurance Numbers, addresses, phone numbers and birth dates.

In the digital age, that information can cause financial havoc to victims in the hands of identity thieves, credit skimmers and immigration scammers, lawyers for the students say.

Windsor-based firm Sutts, Strosberg LLP is one of three law firms specializing in class- action suits which jointly served the federal government Friday with a claim for $600 million in compensation – or the equivalent of about $1,000 per affected student.

The claim is based on advice that federal officials have given loan holders who complained about the risk they now face: some were told to hire a credit monitoring service to guard against account hackers and hijacked identities. Their lawyers say the federal government should at least cover the cost of that protection, which is about $15 per month.

“This is a classic case where the individual wouldn’t go the expense of hiring a lawyer on their own because their losses aren’t large enough,” says Sharon Strosberg, one of the lawyers handling the huge claim.

“But you have to take it seriously — these people are now at risk for identify theft,” Strosberg said Friday. “It is the expectation of Canadians that the proper protections be put in place for them.”

The partner firms in the Sutts, Strosberg suit are Branch Macmaster LLP of Vancouver and Falconer Charney LLP of Toronto. All three firms are well known in Canadian class-action circles, with Sutts Strosberg alone carrying about four dozen active cases right now.

The Sutts, Strosberg claim is one of several expected to be filed for the same group of claimants. Another class-action suit has been filed in Newfoundland and several others are pending across the country.

Strosberg said the three firms decided to share the case after receiving “many calls” from worried loan holders concerned that their finances are now at risk from the security breach.

Only one student’s name is currently attached to the Windsor/Toronto/Vancouver claim, but more will be added as they join, Strosberg said. A website has been set up for them at studentloansclassaction.com

The data loss occurred on Nov. 5, when employees in an HRSDC office in Gatineau, Que., realized they couldn’t find a data stick containing the unencrypted information, which included full contact information and loan balances.

A search for the stick revealed that the hard drive the data came from also couldn’t be found. Federal officials didn’t admit the loss to the public until last week. Although the HRSDC office was located in Quebec, no Quebec data was on the hard drives — only information from the rest of the country.

Even just locally, the potential pool of claimants is huge. Lori Lewis, a spokeswoman for the University of Windsor, said the school saw about 7,000 of its 16,500 students apply for loans or grants under the Ontario Student Assistance Program in the 2011-2012 school year.

If the number of applicants has been on a slow steady climb over the past 13 years, as is believed, that would translate to a pool of anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 affected University of Windsor students alone.

Tens of thousands more students attending St. Clair College also took out OSAP loans during the same period. The college had between 5,000 and 6,000 students enrolled for each of the affected years. In some classes, more than half of the students have taken out loans.

“I think this is an important case because this is an issue which is prevalent right now — the potential for mischief is great,” Strosberg said. “We live in a digital age and people have a right to know how their information is protected.”

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Market to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.